Sunday, July 29, 2012

One Million Copies...What makes a page turner?

For almost year now, I have studied story structure. Larry Brooks and Syd Field convinced me that every best seller is framed with the proper story elements in the right order. I can write a book that lacks an essential element, but it will be a hard sell for me, an aspiring author.

I used Larry Brooks's list below as my entry into plotting. See if it helps you, whether you're a plotter, a pantser, or a fluid outliner.

What is the conceptual hook/appeal of your story?

What is the theme(s) of your story?

How does your story open? Is there an immediate hook? And then…

• what is the hero doing in their life before the first plot
point?

• what stakes are established prior to the first plot point?

• what is your character’s backstory?

• what inner demons show up here that will come to bear on
the hero later

in the
story?

• what is foreshadowed prior to the first plot point?

What is the first plot point in your story?

• is it located properly within the story sequence?

• how does it change the hero’s agenda going forward?

• what is the nature of the hero’s new need/quest?

• what is at stake relative to meeting that need?

• what opposes the hero in meeting that need?

• what does the antagonistic force have at stake?

• why will the reader empathize with the hero at this point?

• how does the hero respond to the antagonistic force?

What is the Mid-Point contextual shift/twist in your story?

• how does it part the curtain of superior knowledge…

• … for the hero?… and/or, for the reader?

• how does this shift the context of the story?

• how does this pump up dramatic tension and pace?

How does your hero begin to successfully attack their need/quest?

• how does the antagonistic force respond to this attack?

• how do the hero’s inner demons come to bear on this
attack?

What is the all-is-lost lull just before the second plot point?

What is the second plot point in your story?

• how does this change or affect the hero’s proactive role?

How is your hero the primary catalyst for the successful
resolution of

the central problem or issue in this story?

• how does it meet the hero’s need and fulfill the quest?

• how does the hero demonstrate the conquering of inner
demons?

• how are the stakes of the story paid off?

• what will be the reader’s emotional experience as the
story concludes?

4 comments:

As Ana knows, I've seen this before, but these are the questions I can only answer once I have actually finished the whole story. Then I can use it as a kind of check-list.But then I'm a pantser, not a plotter, and my characters define themselves as I write them.What is actually interesting to me right now is that I can answer a lot of these questions regarding my current WIP - but even so, it's my 'gut instinct' that is telling me that something is missing somewhere!